KOLKATA: Days after results of NEET, the all-India medical entrance exams, came out, the Survey Park police have arrested eight members of an inter-country gang that fleeced medical aspirants by falsely offering admissions to colleges in Bengal and Karnataka. The gang also targeted MBA aspirants.
Usually, the victims approach the police. In this case, two "employees" of the fake consultancy firm at Kalikapurtook the initiative and blew the whistle on the masterminds. "The case has been recorded based on a report submitted by sub-inspector T N Tewary in connection with an inquiry letter, which later became the letter of complaint, filed by Apala Dutta and Amit Kumar Rana, employees of Indian
Lead.com at Kalikapur. They complained against the directors, Ajitesh Mondal and Ashwani Modi, and managers Aniruddha Das Gupta and Kshitish Sahoo and their associates. The two, who lodged the complaint on June 11, said they were forced into the fake admission racket," said DC (SSD) Santosh Nimbalkar.
Initially, Das Gupta and Sahoo feigned innocence, but later, confessed to be running the racket. Mondal and Modi set them targets to allure medical aspirants, who had not ranked high. The accused charged "captiation fees", ranging from Rs 35 lakh to Rs 75 lakh, promising innocent candidates confirmed seats under management quota in MBBS and MBA courses.
"The gang members said the office had trade licence from the KMC as they had claimed to run a computer training centre," an officer said. "They have a branch office in Bengaluru, where Modi was the in-charge. Mondal was in charge of the Kolkata unit. Mondal was earlier arrested in an admission racket by the Bangalore Police in 2016."
The gang pretended to run a computer training centre.